Posts Tagged ‘Non Woven Wallpaper’

Fortress Paper Ltd. (TSX:FTP) (“Fortress Paper” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that, in response to strong investor demand, it has increased its previously announced bought deal public offering from $30 million to $35 million principal amount of convertible unsecured subordinated debentures (the “Debentures”) on the same terms as the previously announced offering. A syndicate led by Raymond James Ltd. and including Canaccord Genuity Corp., Dundee Securities Ltd., RBC Capital Markets, Scotia Capital Inc., TD Securities Inc., Cormark Securities Inc. and Acumen Capital Finance Partners Ltd. (collectively, the “Underwriters”) have agreed to purchase the Debentures at a price of $1,000 per Debenture. Fortress Paper has also granted the underwriters an over-allotment option to purchase up to an additional $5.25 million aggregate principal amount of debentures for a period of 30 days following closing to cover over-allotments.

The net proceeds of the financing will be used for repayment of debt, the funding of capital expenditures relating to the Fortress Specialty Cellulose Mill, working capital and general corporate purposes.

The offering is scheduled to close on or about December 22, 2011 and is subject to certain conditions including, but not limited to, the receipt of all necessary approvals including the approval of the Toronto Stock Exchange.

A preliminary short-form prospectus will be filed with securities regulatory authorities in all provinces of Canada.

Please refer to the press release issued by the Company on December 7, 2011 for further details with respect to the offering.

This news release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of any offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. The securities offered will not be and have not been registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “U.S. Securities Act”) and may not be offered or sold in the United States except pursuant to exemptions from the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws.

About Fortress Paper

Fortress Paper is a leading international producer of security and other specialty papers and products. Fortress Paper operates three mills, the Landqart Mill located in Switzerland, the Dresden Mill located in Germany and the Fortress Specialty Cellulose Mill located in Quebec, Canada. Fortress Paper’s security papers include banknote, passport and visa papers and its specialty papers include non-woven wallpaper base products, and graphic and technical papers. Fortress Paper’s pulp business includes dissolving pulp produced at the Fortress Specialty Cellulose Mill.

Fortress Paper Ltd. (“Fortress Paper” or the “Company”) (TSX:FTP) announced today that it has commenced dissolving pulp production at its Fortress Specialty Cellulose Mill in Thurso, Quebec. The centerpiece of the project, a new state of the art pre-hydrolized kraft cooking plant, came on line successfully on Sunday. The commencement of dissolving pulp production signifies the successful completion of the conversion of the Fortress Specialty Cellulose Mill into a dissolving pulp operation.

Chad Wasilenkoff, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Fortress Paper, commented: “This is a momentous day in the history of Fortress Paper and a culmination of our work at the Fortress Specialty Cellulose Mill since acquiring the mill in April 2010. We are very proud to join the limited group of dissolving pulp producers in the world and look forward to completing our first shipments. We would like to thank all those involved in helping bring this project on line.”

Dresden Mill

The Dresden Mill continues to lead the non-woven wallpaper base market globally. The order book remains strong and its recent upgrades to improve speed and capacity have been successfully implemented. During the past few months, Fortress Paper in its normal course has been reviewing each of its business divisions and assessing all options as part of its strategy to enhance shareholder value. As part of this ongoing evaluation, management identified a potential divestiture opportunity relating to its non-woven wallpaper base division. Given the financial uncertainties and lack of financial confidence in the Euro zone, Fortress Paper management decided not to pursue any divestiture option for the Dresden Mill. With the support of its management team in Germany, Fortress Paper intends to continue to grow this business division organically and potentially through strategic acquisitions.

Landqart Mill

The Landqart Mill has continued to experience challenges throughout the fourth quarter as a result of a strong Swiss franc, high raw material costs, and less than optimal production efficiency on its paper machines. The company expects that these issues will continue to materially impact results of operations in the fourth quarter. The Company anticipates that it will overcome many of these challenges with the new banknote paper orders that have recently been placed at the mill and which represent a significant portion of the mill’s 2012 banknote capacity.

Fortress Paper’s President & CEO, Chad Wasilenkoff, talks to the Business News Network (BNN) about his company’s focus on non-woven wallpaper & security paper, and speaks about upcoming innovations at their Landqart Mill in Switzerland.

This week Fortress Paper Ltd. announced a 52 per cent rise in quarterly profits, showing that while many companies are struggling during this period of economic downturn, they are thriving.

The company – which produces non-woven wallpapers as well as security and specialty papers (such as bank notes) – reported net income of $3.5 million for the third quarter of 2009, an increase of $1.5 million from the same quarter last year. The increase in profits earned shareholders $0.38 per share, up more than ten cents from last year.

Fortress Paper credits a strong quarter in banknote paper sales from its Lanqart mill coupled with consistent positive results at their Dresden mill:

“As the year has progressed it has become apparent that our mills have been able to endure the economic crisis and produce healthy results,” the company said in a press release this week. “The market for security papers, which includes bank notes, passport paper and other high security papers, continues to show strength and our order book for wallpaper base is experiencing its highest level of demand since the economic downturn.”